I can’t help but wonder what the beaches will be like when my friends arrive in August.
How long will it take the oil to reach our beaches?
Of course, we can get over to the other coast pretty easily if the west coast beaches are contaminated with oil globs.

I looked at a few hundred photos of the oil spill on a news site this morning, and I can’t help but think that it’s so much bigger, so much deeper, so much more of an impact globally than the initial thoughts on it.
It has to be, because everything is connected.

Amidst these photos, there are all sorts of hate signs against BP, which I understand, but the thing is, BP really isn’t the problem. (Not that they’re innocent, by any means.)

As always, we put them there. All of us who drive gas powered cars paid for that oil rig.
Especially if we’ve ever bought gas at BP.
But, the reality is… it’s our government/system’s lack of checks and balances as long a business/industry is willing to pay for their approval.

That lack of genuine concern for the well being of the citizens of this world causes the deaths of people eating meat contaminated with E. Coli, that’s been approved by our government (that continues to be approved).

That lack of concern fuels pharmaceutical companies that make incredibly unhealthy medicines a standard part of child-bearing, healthcare, and life in this country.

That lack of concern allows less than great standards for oil drilling that results in the deaths of people & wildlife, the demise of entire economies and small businesses that depend on the ocean for their functionality.

That lack of concern creates waste that will never decompose and exponentially increases, and is harmful to everyone who comes in contact with it.

That lack of concern approves products and foods that have evidence of linking to cancer and heart disease.

This oil spill is obvious, it’s in our faces.
But what about all the people dying from cancer (and various other diseases) that don’t need to?
What about kids eating a hamburger & dying of E. Coli (and various other diseases) that shouldn’t be?

We shouldn’t be protesting and boycotting BP, we should be trying to change the way the industry works & supporting alternate sources of transportation – alternate sources to fuel our transportation.

We should be pushing and challenging our government to change the way these systems work.

And most importantly, we shouldn’t be blindly following. We should be researching and asking questions.
We have to be the checks and balances that aren’t there. Otherwise, we’re doomed, because they won’t take care of us.

These kinds of disasters happen when our world cries out in despair, because everything is connected.
Because the world functions as one big unit, and when something breaks, it’s not alone.

We must be advocates for change, because as we’ve seen… the beaches can’t speak for themselves.